EMERGENCY measures to cut European Union beef production are
being drawn up by Brussels amid growing concern that the market is
failing to recover after the BSE crisis.

Franz Fischler, the EU agriculture commissioner, said yesterday that
action was urgently needed if a continuing fall in beef prices
throughout Europe was to be reversed. "The chaos unleashed upon the beef
sector of the European Union by the BSE crisis has been so precipitous,
and of such magnitude, that it is unparalleled in the history of the
common agricultural policy," said Mr Fischler.

Among measures being considered by Brussels are the imposition of
maximum weight limits for cattle that can be bought into intervention
and less generous EU grants for farmers rearing beef cattle. Such
measures, which are likely to be tabled by Mr Fischler at a meeting of
farm ministers on July 22, would be another blow to British beef farmers
in the short term.

Mr Fischler said yesterday: "The economic viability of the beef sector
in the future can only be guaranteed through a rebalancing of the
market. The livelihoods of millions of beef producers, and the economic
stability of the whole beef industry of the European Union, is under
serious threat if urgent and radical action is not taken."

Continuing falls in beef prices have forced the European Commission to
buy up 180,000 tonnes of beef since the beginning of the "mad cow"
crisis. By the end of the year stocks bought into intervention could be
more than 600,000, leaving the EU with another large beef mountain to
clear. In the past, it had been possible for the community to sell its
intervention beef at low prices on the world market, but recent changes
in world trade agreements have rendered this impossible.

"Given this scenario, there is a very real danger of an unprecedented
level of beef intervention stock overhanging and depressing the market,"
said Mr Fischler. It was against this "bleak outlook" that measures "to
reduce beef output as radidly as possible" were being drawn up, he
added.

HELP may be on its way to the Meat and Livestock Commission, which had
its wrists slapped by the Advertising Standards Authority last week.
The ASA upheld complaints over one of the Commissions newspaper
advertisements, which stated that beef was perfectly safe to eat and
that there were even cases of vegetarians getting CJD, the human
equivalent of "mad cow" disease.

Rumour has it that a complimentary copy of the Richards Butler "A Guide
to UK Advertising and Sales Promotion Law" is currently winging its way
to the commission's HQ in Milton Keynes.
Helpfully, it contains a special chapter entitled "Misleading
Advertisements".

"The news on the radio is interesting today. The Europeans are apparently
convinced that we are exporting both cattle and tainted feed. A European
parliament enquiry will start soon (next week I think) and they are
sending over their own monitoring teams to our ports! It seems to be the case that our
relations with Europe are deteriorating.

We are still producing feed and fertiliser from bovine material in the
UK, so we could be exporting it. This is LEGAL and the stuff is used for
feeding fish and for horticultural (commercial glasshouse and domestic)
use."